A $2.0M Retail Shell Bid Where Site Work Carried the Risk
On a shell building, paving, grade beams, and steel tonnage decide the bid. This Portland, Texas GC needed building and site priced in one estimate.
About the Client
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ZJZ Hospitality Mercantile Shell
ZJZ Hospitality Mercantile is a single-story, 12,283 SF retail shell building in Portland, Texas, built with CMU walls, steel bar joists, and a metal roof deck, plus a full parking lot and site package.
Industry
Private Commercial
Year
2026
Services
Full GC Estimate, Building & Site
The Challenge
On a shell building, site work and structure carry most of the cost, so errors in paving, grade beams, or steel tonnage hit the bid hard.
The GC needed both building and site priced in one estimate, rather than stitching together separate scopes and hoping the seams held.
$2.0M
base bid delivered
255
line items across 15 divisions
34
trades priced
The Solution
We took off 255 line items across 15 CSI divisions and 34 trades, from earthwork and utilities through to storefronts and canopies.
Each concrete element was sized individually: pad footings, two grade beam types, slab on grade, and four paving thicknesses from light duty to driveway. We cross-checked the roof as well, confirming that metal deck, roof insulation, and cover board all measure about 11,800 SF, matching the building footprint.
Results & Outlook
A $2.0M base bid where site improvements at 22%, metals at 17%, and concrete at 10% were clearly broken out, so the GC could target the biggest risks first.
Key quantities: 324 CY of building concrete across footings, grade beams and slab, 615 CY of site concrete paving, sidewalks and driveway, 10,066 SF of 8-inch CMU walls, 30,690 lbs of steel bar joists, 11,825 SF of metal roof deck, and 72 parking wheel stops.
End Note
Cross-checking related areas against each other, roof deck against insulation against cover board, is a cheap way to catch an expensive mistake before it reaches the bid.
